Medical documentation and personal electronic health card

Medical records are being adjusted to match the practical way of understanding an illness as a disorder in the balanced state of the organism. This approach has also modified opinions regarding the form of medical documentation, the determination of necessary examinations and treatment. The progress in medicine along with the growing need for specific medical information made it necessary to look for new ways of making medical information available. One of these ways is to make the system of health care documentation electronic. The main tool of this system is an electronic health card. The objective of my work was to find out the following: the extent of utilization of electronic health cards; doctors´ opinions regarding the use of electronic medical documentation; the attitude of patients to medical documentation and the willingness of doctors to join the IZIP project of electronic health cards. Two hypotheses were checked for the purpose of the graduation work. Hypothesis no. 1 {--} Medical personnel expect that the project of electronic health cards will speed up the process of providing information about patients´ state of health. Hypothesis no. 2 {--} Health care facilities are willing to keep electronic documentation only if they receive compensation for increased administrative activities. To check the hypotheses, the author used the method of quantitative research. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. The research was carried out between January and March 2009. The research was performed in health care facilities in South Bohemia represented by private doctors. 200 questionnaires were printed out. 152 of these could be fully used for the research. Hypothesis no. 1 was confirmed since 58% of the people who filled out the questionnaire agreed with the statement that the project of electronic health cards would accelerate the process of sharing information about patients´ state of health. Hypothesis no. 2 was not confirmed. There are two main problems preventing the use of IZIP; one of them is that patients are not interested and the other that doctors do not trust the system. That is why the necessary information is not always found in the IZIP since some health care facilities do not work with the system. Doctors would have to be forced or sufficiently motivated to transfer to the use of electronic medical documentation and they would have to change their negative attitude to modern technologies. This work could extend the information about medical documentation and electronic health cards among health care providers and the broader public and give feedback to people working in health care facilities